Year: 2012

The Collie office will be closing for the holidays on Friday 21 December 2012 (but don’t call after midday because we will be out celebrating the end of the year) and will reopen on Monday 7 January 2013.

Regular readers of the Collie latest news will know that Collie has been closely involved in the rezoning, master planning and redevelopment of ‘Coburg Hill’ (the former Kodak Australasia site) which is located in Coburg North approximately nine kilometres north of Melbourne’s CBD. A key feature of Coburg Hill is its relationship with Edgars Creek,… Read more »

Collie is pleased to announce the recent approval of the Tower Hill Development Plan by Swan Hill Rural City Council. Tower Hill is located about 1.7 kilometres from the Swan Hill town centre and the master plan was prepared by a multi-disciplinary project team co-ordinated by Collie. The development plan facilitates the creation of approximately… Read more »

Collie recently attended a VPELA event held at Places Victoria that discussed the benefits of urban renewal and why it is important for all Victorians. Urban renewal has obviously been a hot topic in recent times with the continued negative media about Docklands and the Fisherman’s Bend Project now muted by the Victorian Government. We… Read more »

An article in a recent Sunday Age raised the issue of development overshadowing solar panels on neighbouring properties. While the State Planning Policy Framework in all planning schemes seeks to encourage land use and development that is energy efficient and minimises greenhouse gas emissions, at the moment the Schemes provides little guidance in respect of… Read more »

Recently came across this new form of solar housing with various high technology features. The structure is of insulated steel and plastic, is modeled on utopian architectural styles and is suspended above the ground. Inhabitants need to be able to fly and to be quite small. It’s a beehive.

Amendments to planning schemes (such as rezonings) often involve long, drawn out processes with few statutory time frames. One could be forgiven for thinking that key steps in the process appear to be at the whim of the relevant planning authority. There has been a call from many in the industry to make the system… Read more »

The Victorian Government is partnering with Hanover Welfare Services and the Brotherhood of St Laurence to build a ‘youth foyer’ on Kangan Institute’s Broadmeadows campus. The Victorian Government made an election commitment to invest $30.1 million over three years to establish three purpose-built and separately located youth foyers, the first of which is the Broadmeadows… Read more »

Previous articles in this column have discussed some of the planning issues relating to the devastating earthquakes in Christchurch, New Zealand. This has included commentary on the pop-up retail precinct utilising shipping containers and the new town plan released in the middle of this year. A recent trip to Christchurch revealed a city in transition. … Read more »